Cyprus

Several wildfires are burning across Colorado amid record heat and high winds. The Big Meadows fire is burning on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park, and the Royal Gorge fire is burning in Royal Gorge Park while the Black Forest fire is burning in El Paso County. Complete coverage: Colorado wildfires 2013

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In today’s pictures, a bank manager tries to calm customers in Cyprus, workers stage a strike in Hong Kong, a man cleans a huge pan in India, and more.

Businessweek has a thoughtful and well-written defense of Bitcoin, the open source virtual currency that approximates cash on the internet. Writer and programmer Paul Ford points out that the Bitcoin experiment, so far, is working: it's actually being exchanged as money, and the underlying technology has proved "to be impeccable and completely functional." He makes a persuasive point that Bitcoin is "no more arbitrary than derivatives or credit default swaps." At the time of this writing, a single Bitcoin is being traded for $91.67 USD (although The Economist, at least, expects the bubble will pop soon).

Unfortunately, Ford also repeats the unsubstantiated claim that Bitcoin's meteoric price rise was sparked by fears over the Cyprus...

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In today’s pictures, a boy celebrates Holi in India, Edith Windsor challenges the Defense of Marriage Act at the U.S. Supreme Court, sand dunes form in the Netherlands, and more.

Agencies and Collectives

It’s not even December yet, but some Best of 2012s are out already….

VII: Best of 2012: Highlights of a Year in Pictures | ‘VII photographers present their best images, shot or released in 2012′

Best Pictures of the Year from Agence France Presse (Whittier Daily News)

European Pressphoto Agency: The Year in Images (EPA)

Reuters’ best pictures of the year is pretty cool as it includes comments by the photographers and even technical info…

Photo © Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

Reuters: Best Photos of The Year 2012 (Reuters)

VII Newsletter November 2012

TerraProject Newsletter November 2012

Prime Collective: Newsletter November 2012

NOOR: Evelien Kunst becomes NOOR’s new Managing Director | news on BJP

Magnum event at Frontline Club in London : Magnum Revolution: 65 Years of Fighting for Freedom : Thursday December 13, 2012 7:00 PM

Pioneer photo agency Sipa Press files for bankruptcy protection (BJP)

Katie Orlinsky joins Reportage by Getty Images as a Featured Photographer

Tommaso Protti joins Emerging Talent at Reportage by Getty Images

Firecracker November 2012

Photographers

Trailer to the upcoming McCulling documentary…Very much looking forward to seeing the film at some point…In the mean time I’ll be reading his autobiography Unreasonable Behaviour.

Trailer to the documentary ‘McCullin’ (Guardian) ‘Watch the world exclusive trailer for David and Jacqui Morris’s documentary on British photographer Don McCullin, whose acclaimed work for the Observer and the Sunday Times in Vietnam, Biafra, Cyprus and Lebanon produced some of the defining images of war. McCullin describes the ‘moral sense of purpose and duty’ behind his work. McCullin is released in the UK on 1 January 2013′

Somewhere to Disappear with Alec Soth

Looks like Contrasto has pushed the publication of James Nachtwey’s Pietas forward until September 2013… Was supposed to come out late October… Shame. Was on my wish list for Santa…

James Nachtwey: Pietas 

Reckoning at the Frontier by Eros Hoagland (Kickstarter crowdfunding) ‘Reckoning at the Frontier is an upcoming photography book that explores the drug war in northern Mexico.’

Workshop : Photographic storytelling with Sebastian Meyer and Anastasia Taylor-Lind : 7 December, London(Guardian) ‘Two eminent, widely published and very different photojournalists give a Guardian Masterclass in telling stories with images.’

Photo © Maysun

Maysun

Jordi Ruiz Cicera

David Vintiner

Matilde Gattoni

Hiroyuki Ito

Nicola Lo Calzo

Howard Schatz

Andrew Lichtenstein

Matthew Niederhauser

Lindsay Mackenzie

Andrea Frazzetta

Narciso Contreras

Georgina Cranston

Mark Seager

Matt Carr

Michal Solarski

Laura Pannack new website

Duncan Nicol Robertson

Mark Hartman

Mark Hartman on Verve

Paul Taggart on Verve

Pavel Prokopchik on Verve

Philipp Spalek  on Verve

Daniel Hartley-Allen on Verve

Linda Dorigo on Verve

Pascal Maitre

Matteo di Giovanni

Sebastiano Tomada Piccolomini

Greta Pratt

Toufic Beyhum

Emine Ziyatdinova

Artur Conka

Right next to the podium of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City is a white leather chair reserved for the presidents, prime ministers and monarchs waiting to speak at the annual meeting.

ORGANIZED PROCESSION: Soldiers carried the coffin of former Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash during his funeral procession in Nicosia, Cyprus, Tuesday. Mr. Denktash, who died Jan. 13 at the age of 87, worked to create a separate Turkish Cypriot state. (Petros Karadjias/Associated Press)

SINGLE FILE: A still from aerial video shows passengers of the Costa Concordia evacuating the sinking cruise ship off the coast of Giglio, Italy, Jan. 14. Costa Crociere, which operated the ship, said the commander had been properly trained, but he was detained and transcripts indicated that he evacuated the vessel before some of the passengers. (Guardia Costiera/Reuters)

CRYING OUT: Police officers scuffled with Tibetan activists trying to escape from a police bus outside New Delhi’s Hyderabad House, the venue of new border talks between Indian and Chinese officials. (Manan Vatsyayana/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

THROUGH THE FIRE: A man rode a horse through a bonfire Monday in the village of San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain, in honor of San Anton, the patron saint of animals. (Juinen/Getty Images)

QUITE A STRETCH: Great Britain’s Andy Murray played during the Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday. Mr. Murray defeated American Ryan Harrison 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. (Jason O’Brien/Action Images/Zuma Press)

PUMPING AWAY: Hoses to be used to pump diesel and gasoline stretched from the Russian tanker Renda toward the iced-in town of Nome, Alaska, Monday. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy cleared a path for the tanker to deliver much-needed fuel. (Grant DeVuyst/U.S. Coast Guard/Reuters)

SO LONG, SANTA: Police arrested a demonstrator dressed as Santa Claus during protests in Santiago, Chile, Thursday. Protesters demanded changes in education funding. (Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

SUNRISE AT STONEHENGE: People watched the sun rise during a winter solstice celebration at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, Thursday. (Tim Ireland/PA/Associated Press)

HIGH KICKS: AZ Alkmaar goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado kicked an Ajax fan who tried to attack him during a soccer match at the Amsterdam Arena Wednesday. Mr. Alvarado was given a red card, which was later rescinded. His team left the field; the game might have to be replayed. (Louis Van De Vuurst/Ajax/Reuters)

GRIEVING: A woman held a picture of victims of a 2005 Helios Airways crash at a demonstration outside the attorney general’s office in Nicosia, Cyprus, Thursday. A court found four former officials at the defunct airline not guilty of manslaughter in the crash that killed 121 people. (Andreas Lazarou/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

SUBWAY MISSTEP: A video still released Thursday shows a woman who exited a train and stumbled backward, falling under the train on the tracks at a subway station in South Yorkshire, England. Police said the woman, who was inebriated, sustained minor injuries. (British Transport Police/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)

NEW OFFICERS: Police officers saluted during a graduation ceremony in Madison Square Garden in New York Thursday. The 1,519 graduates completed more than six months of training at New York City’s Police Academy. (Richard Drew/Associated Press)

It's been just over a month since the capture and death of Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy, ending his 42-year reign. Since then, the rebels have declared that the nation is liberated, installed a transitional government, and started the process of writing a constitution. Still, substantial problems remain. Pockets of fighting have erupted among rival tribes and some rebels have refused to give up their cache of weapons. Doctors continue to struggle to treat the wounded and sick, with a few of the most severely injured being sent to rehabilitation centers in Boston and elsewhere. Last weekend, Khadafy’s son, Seif, was captured and could face war crimes for his part in the conflict. -- Lloyd Young (EDITOR'S NOTE: We will not post a Big Picture on Friday, November 25, due to the Thanksgiving Holiday.) (40 photos total)
Anti-Khadafy fighters acknowledge the crowd during a review of the brigades from the eastern region to commemorate the liberation of Quiche in Benghazi Oct. 27. (Esam Al-Fetori/Reuters)